Kirsten’s Story

Life is like a beautiful tapestry, a picture that takes years, decades, one’s entire life to be designed, created, revealed. This is a portion of my life’s tapestry…a few stands of the weave.

“I am calling you to love the unloved.” The Lord quietly spoke these eight simple, but life changing words to me in March 2016, during a conference I was attending. For a long time I was unsure as to whom exactly He was referring. He slowly began to reveal the answer to me by bringing precious young people into our lives who needed love. He solidified the answer in April 2017 by laying it upon our hearts to become Resource/Foster/Adoptive parents.

Exactly one year later, I was wrestling over whether to have another baby, having just lost one to an ectopic pregnancy, or to focus on loving those who needed love and foster/adopt instead. The Lord unveiled this beautiful verse to me, from Isaiah 54:1-15… A Perpetual Covenant of Peace.

1 “Sing, O barren,You who have not borne!Break forth into singing, and cry aloud,You who have not labored with child!For more are the children of the desolateThan the children of the married woman,” says the Lord.2 “Enlarge the place of your tent,And let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings;Do not spare;Lengthen your cords,And strengthen your stakes.3 For you shall expand to the right and to the left,And your descendants will inherit the nations,And make the desolate cities inhabited.…..13 All your children shall be taught by the Lord,And great shall be the peace of your children.14 In righteousness you shall be established;You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear;And from terror, for it shall not come near you.15 Indeed they shall surely assemble, but not because of Me.Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake.

The Lord gives us signposts in our lives to lead and guide us to His gentle will. This was a signpost for me. I love how the Message Bible phrases such signposts for our lives….

Psalm 119:11-16How can a young person live a clean life? By carefully reading the map of your Word.I’m single-minded in pursuit of you; don’t let me miss the road signs you’ve posted.I’ve banked your promises in the vault of my heart so I won’t sin myself bankrupt.Be blessed, God; train me in your ways of wise living.

The week following my ectopic surgery, we received notice that we were officially approved as Foster/Adoptive Parents, a journey that had taken us exactly a year to complete due to various reasons. However, God’s timing was perfect.

God’s heart is for the fatherless. The bible clearly states what ‘true’ religion looks like: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27

I knew my calling was to follow God’s heart for the “unloved”. Now it was up to me to live it, to have faith and to obey. God began to put serving within this area of need, indefinitely, within Southern Africa (South Africa/Botswana), on our hearts. In August 2018, God said it was time to “Go”. We felt His timeline was six weeks from that date. We obeyed. The rest of the story is yet to be discovered…